Videl, A Secret Identity, and Time Travel
by Professor Snaglefoompus
Summary: Videl learns that Saiyaman is really the Gold Fighter, and due to a mistake of Gohan's, she gets sent to Future Trunks' timeline. Written for SweetestIrony's Gohan/Videl Week 3.0.
1. Revelations

**Author's Note: **So, this is a story for SweetestIrony's Gohan/Videl Week 3.0. Hopefully, I'll be able to write a Gohan/Videl story every day this week. The starter sentence for today was "She burned with anger".

The story was finished on 2/21/10, but I updated it on 8/21/10 to fix a typo in Chapter Four. I also rewrote the epilogue, which was kind of short because I was writing it against a deadline.

* * *

She burned with anger as she punched Saiyaman in the chest. "Who _are_ you?" she demanded. "Gohan? Ralph? _Sharpner?_"

"I don't know any of those people, Miss Videl!" Gohan said, trying his best to sound truthful.

Videl punched harder. "I _hate_ you! Why don't you go away and stop ruining my life?"

"Miss Videl, please! I'm not _trying_ to ruin your life! I just want to make the city a safer place for everyone!"

"Yeah, you and the Gold Fighter! What is this place, some sort of breeding ground for wannabe superheroes?"

"I don't know anything about the Gold Fighter! Honest!" Gohan squealed.

Videl stopped punching. That was, without a doubt, the most obvious lie she had ever heard. "Aha!" she said. "So you _do_ know something about the Gold Fighter! Who is he?"

"What? No! I said I don't know anything about him! Why would you even think something like that?"

"Let me see. Two people, both of whom can _fly_, move into town during the _exact same week_, and both of them start fighting crime. I think that's _more_ than just a coincidence, don't you?"

"Eek!"

"Spill the beans! How do you know the Gold Fighter? Are you related to him? Or...are _you_ the Gold Fighter?"

"Augh!" Gohan shouted. Videl grinned in triumph.

_This is terrible! She's finally figured out my secret identity as Saiyaman! Well, sort of! I think! Okay, not really. But it's still bad...right?_

"You _are_ the Gold Fighter! Admit it!"

_Wait...maybe this isn't bad!_ Gohan realized. _If she thinks Saiyaman is really the Gold Fighter, then she might stop bothering me about my secret identity! It's worth a shot!_

Gohan quickly powered up to Super Saiyan.

"You're right, Videl," he said, taking off his helmet. "I am the Gold Fighter."

Videl's jaw dropped. She had finally done it! She had unmasked the Great Saiyaman! It wasn't who she thought it was—she was going to owe Gohan a _serious_ apology now—but who cares? The Not-So-Great Saiyaman's secret had been revealed!

She was so excited her brain didn't register the fact that, for the first time, the Great Saiyaman had called her _Videl _instead of _Miss Videl_.

"_Yes!_" she cried. "I did it!"

"Happy now?" Gohan asked, sarcastically. For reasons he never fully understood, being in Super Saiyan form brought out his harsher side.

"Why didn't you tell me who you were from the very beginning?" Videl asked.

"I...I wanted to keep my identity a secret, that's all," Gohan said. "People made such a big deal about me fighting crime that I decided I needed to disguise myself to keep them off my back."

"Well, that makes sense, but..." Videl shook her head. "I still don't know anything! Who are you? How can you fly? Why are you glowing?"

"I'm glowing because I'm in Super Saiyan form," Gohan explained.

"Super...Saiyan?" Videl asked.

"That's where I got the name 'Great Saiyaman' from," Gohan said. "You _do_ know what a Saiyan is, right?"

Videl shook her head. "I've never heard of a Saiyan before. Is Saiya the name of a city?"

Gohan shook his head. His cold blue eyes turned away from her. "Look it up sometime. Maybe then you'll know why I want to keep my identity secret."

Gohan picked his helmet off of the ground. "Goodbye, Videl."

"Wait!" Videl cried. "Gold Fighter...Saiyaman...we'll see each other again, right?"

Gohan put his helmet back on and immediately resumed talking in his deep superhero voice. "Of course we'll see each other again, Miss Videl! Wherever there is injustice, the Great Saiyaman and Videl will be there to stop it! ...Just please don't punch me again, okay?"

* * *

Naturally, the first thing Videl did when she got home was look up Saiyans, but they weren't in the dictionary or the encyclopedia. After an hour of searching on the internet, all she could find was a reference to a small segment on an old news program. The segment was called _Crackpot Stories – Alien Invasions._

It wasn't much of a lead, but it was all she had to go on, so Videl swung by the vault where the TV station kept their old videos, and she borrowed a copy to take home with her.

Then, Videl went back home. Her dad was in the video room, watching some of his old fights. Videl didn't want to disturb him, so she went to her room and went through all her notes on the Gold Fighter and Saiyaman instead. Those notes _seriously_ needed updating.

After she was done—it took longer than she thought—she grabbed the tape and went to the video room. To her surprise, her father was _still_ there, watching videos of his old fights. He said it was "training for the upcoming World Martial Arts Tournament", but Videl thought differently.

"Reliving your glory days, eh, Papa?" she asked.

Hercule grinned sheepishly. Sure, maybe watching videos of his old fights was a little foolish. Reliving his glory days, ha! He was the strongest fighter in the world! _Now_ was his glory day!

But to be honest, Hercule had the nagging feeling that he _was_ past his prime. He hadn't been in a fight for a few months. While he had been doing nothing, both Videl and the Great Saiyaman had become famous heroes—maybe even _more_ famous than him.

But what was Hercule supposed to do? Admit that he was over the hill? Tell his daughter he was jealous of her immense popularity? No, that was crazy talk. He was her father. He wasn't jealous of Videl. He was proud of her and all the good work she did to help the city.

But still...Hercule was worried that, unless he was careful, the upcoming World Martial Arts Tournament might be his last.

"Hey, honey!" Hercule said. "You're up late! Want to watch the Late Night Talk Show with me?"

"Sure, I guess," Videl said.

Hercule flipped to the channel where their favorite late night show host was telling his nightly monologue. Videl settled into her chair—the monologue was the best part of the show. Hearing the host tell jokes was always entertaining.

"So, the latest news is the hip hop sensation Yo Rapper just bought himself a new hovercar," the host said. "When asked why, he said that he got it because he wanted a _fly ride_."

Videl and Hercule laughed along with the studio audience.

"They're trying to open a new stem cell research facility over in West City, but I understand there's been some controversy," the show host said. "Apparently, as soon as he heard the word 'Cell', Champion Fighter Hercule Satan ran over and destroyed the whole building."

The audience laughed loudly at that joke. Hercule scowled and shut the TV off.

"I'm going to bed," he said, abruptly. "Don't stay up too late, now, Videl."

"I won't," Videl promised. _Poor Dad_, she thought.

Videl put in the tape she got from the news studio. The report was about some fat guy called Yagerrobe. At least, that's what it sounded like. The announcer called him Jager-robey. Clearly, the man had been drinking too much Jager, because he was shouting about an evil alien race called the Saiyans who were going to destroy the world.

"And how many of these aliens are coming to Earth?" the reporter asked.

"Only two," the fat man said. "There are only two Saiyans."

"Let me get this straight. You say that the entire Saiyan race is going to attack the Earth...and there's only _two_ of them?"

"That's right!"

The reporter couldn't hold back his laughter.

"Hey, I'm serious!" the fat man said.

"I-I-I'm sure you are!" the reporter said, laughing.

The interview cut off there, going back to the anchorman, who made a joke about how the Jager-man was a hermit who lived alone by himself, and his, ha ha, magical talking cat.

Videl turned off the TV. She had had enough of people on TV making stupid jokes for one night.

So...the Saiyans were aliens. Evil aliens, apparently. So when the Gold Fighter said he was a Super Saiyan, that meant...what, exactly?

Videl couldn't think of an answer, but she figured she was on the right track. If the Gold Fighter was an alien, that would explain how he could fly and emit a strange golden glow. It would also explain why he tried to hide his identity under the disguise of the Great Saiyaman—having relatives who tried to destroy the Earth is not something you would want to be public knowledge.

Something tugged at Videl's mind. No, wait. Glowing wasn't a strange alien ability. Videl had seen people glow before. At the Cell Games. Did that mean those people were aliens, too? But the man on the tape said there were only two Saiyans...

Videl strained her memory, but the camera had spent such little time on the mysterious warriors that it was hard to...

Wait, the boy. The delivery boy! He definitely had golden hair. And he was glowing during part of the fight. _He_ was the Gold Fighter! He _had_ to be!

Videl was pleased with herself. In one day, she had figured out the true identities of the Great Saiyaman _and_ the Gold Fighter. _All in a day's work_, Videl thought, as she yawned and headed to her bed.

"Aliens, huh?" Videl mumbled to herself as she drifted off to sleep. "Wait until Dad learns about that. I guess they weren't doing tricks after all..."


	2. Gohan and Videl

**Author's Note: **Goku told everyone that he was returning to Earth on the day Videl figured out Saiyaman's secret identity, right? Or was it the day after? Anyway, it was sometime around then, so I made sure to put it in this chapter.

* * *

Videl slept in late the next day. So late that she missed breakfast entirely, which was a shame because she needed to ask her dad about the delivery boy from the Cell Games.

_Oh well_, Videl thought. _I guess I need the extra time to figure out what I want to say. Dad will probably freak if I came out and said I thought that boy was really an alien._

She barely managed to get to school on time, and she was running to first period when she noticed someone familiar running next to her.

"Gohan?" Videl asked.

"Oh, hey, Videl," Gohan said. "You're late for class, too, huh?"

"Looks like it," Videl said.

The two of them made it to class just in time, but the teacher still gave them a warning about not being late.

"Hey, look, Erasa, Gohan and Videl came to class together," Sharpener said. "You know what that means, right?"

"They must have been doing something together before class started!" Erasa said.

Videl groaned.

"We weren't _together_, Sharpener," Videl said. "We just both happened to be late."

"Yeah, sure," Sharpener said. "Seems to me that whenever you're not here, Gohan's not here either. Coincidence?"

"We're not secretly dating, if that's what you think," Videl said sharply. "Right, Gohan?"

"Date Videl...?" Gohan wondered. "I never thought of that before..."

Gohan started imagining what a date with Videl would look like.

_He would show up at Videl's house, wearing a three-piece tuxedo. Her hair would be up and curled, and they would be ready to head for dinner at a fancy restaurant..._

_"VI-DELLL-LLLL! I told you that you aren't allowed to go on dates! Especially not with stupid-looking wimps!"_

_"Oh no, it's my dad!" Videl said._

_"You're in for it now, punk! I'll show you what happens if you try to date my daughter without asking my permission! WOAH-HA! Prepare for pain!"_

_Hercule jumped up and tackled Gohan, delivering a fierce volley of punches to his chest._

"No way!" Gohan blurted out. "I would _never_ date Videl!"

"Hmmph," Sharpener said.

"You don't have to make it sound so horrible," Videl said, somewhat annoyed.

"Um...what I _meant_ was, I would never date Videl unless she asked me first?"

"That's better," Videl said.

"Phew!" Gohan breathed a sigh of relief.

* * *

When the bell rang for lunch, everyone got up to leave. Videl, who had been doing some thinking during class, turned to Gohan.

"We need to talk, Gohan," Videl said.

"Ooo," Sharpener said.

Videl gave Sharpener a nasty look. "And let's get away from this bonehead and talk in _private_."

"Ooooooo!" Erasa said.

"Um, sure, Videl," Gohan said.

* * *

Videl and Gohan went onto the roof of the school, where they could get some relative privacy.

"What did you want to talk about?" Gohan asked.

"The Great Saiyaman," she said.

_Uh oh! I'm busted!_ Gohan thought. _I knew I shouldn't have mentioned Saiyans to her! Now she knows who I am!_

"I'm sorry for accusing you of being the Great Saiyaman," Videl said.

"W-w-what?" Gohan asked.

"Saiyaman took off his helmet yesterday, and it turns out that he's the Gold Fighter, not you."

"_Oh_," Gohan said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I mean, oh yeah. I heard that."

"So I'm sorry for giving you so much grief because I thought you were the Great Saiyaman," Videl said.

It was really nice of Videl to apologize, and Gohan was starting to think that maybe she wasn't as bad as he originally thought, but then she went back into Paranoid Mode.

"But I'm still convinced you're hiding something," Videl said. "No one has a ten hour commute to and from school every day, and nobody's ever seen you arriving or leaving school."

"Ah, come on!" Gohan said. "Do you always have to be suspicious of me? Can't we just be friends?"

"Of course we can be friends. Do you want to be my friend, Gohan?"

"Um...yes?"

"Great," Videl smiled. "Then I'll have you know that my friends don't keep secrets from each other. I expect an explanation by the end of the week. Ciao."

Videl headed back inside the school.

"Oh, man!" Gohan said.

* * *

"Sounds like that Videl girl is really interested in you," Bulma said.

"No kidding!" Gohan said. "Not only is she putting me through the works as the Gold Fighter, she's also giving me grief as Gohan!"

Bulma shook her head. For a smart guy, Gohan was pretty clueless sometimes. "No, I mean, she's _interested_ in you."

"Um...that's what you just said."

"No, Gohan! Don't you know what it means when a girl is interested in you?"

"It means she...she..."

Then, the penny dropped.

"What? No way! Videl doesn't like me in _that_ way! She said so herself when Sharpener asked us about it!"

"Someone _else_ thought she was interested in you?" Bulma grinned.

"Augh! No! You're totally misinterpreting things!"

Bulma smiled. "Well, just try to be a little nicer to her from now on, okay? I know that's hard for you Saiyans to understand, but some people don't like it when you're mean to them all the time."

"I _am_ nice to her," Gohan said.

"Well, good," Bulma said. "So you want to borrow one of my jet copters?"

"If it's not too much trouble," Gohan said. "I have to explain to Videl how I get back and forth to school each day, and it's about a five hour car drive both ways."

"Hmmm..." Bulma thought for a second. "Our jet copters aren't that fast, I'm afraid. It'd still be kind of a long flight from your house to school every day, and if Videl has a jet copter of her own, she's going to know that."

"So...what you're saying is I'm doomed."

"Not exactly," Bulma said. "You can just say that you're using testing one of our newer, faster prototypes. And it's top secret, so that's why you couldn't tell her about it."

"All right!" Gohan cheered. His problem was solved!

Bulma led Gohan to one of the labs, where she pulled out a drawer full of capsules. Every capsule was some kind of flying machine.

"Let's see...there's the D-1000 model, the A-24, the Time Machine, a copy of a Saiyan space pod..."

"The time machine?" Gohan asked.

"Yeah, you know, the broken time machine Cell used to come to our time," Bulma said. "I fixed it up, good as new!"

"Why would you do that?" Gohan asked.

Bulma shrugged. "I wanted to see how it worked, that's all. I suppose I _could _use it to visit Future Trunks if I ever wanted to."

"But it's been seven years since we've last seen him!"

"Time travel, Gohan," Bulma said. "Just because it's been seven years for us doesn't mean I have to make it seven years if I go to the future."

"Uh huh..." Gohan said, scratching his head while trying to understand what she meant. Time travel was weird.

Then, something even weirder than time travel happened.

"Woah! Gohan? Is that _you?_ You're all grown up!" a voice from nowhere called.

Gohan and Bulma looked up. "Dad...?" Gohan asked.

"Goku?" Bulma asked. "Is that you?"

"Yep, it's me!" Goku said. "King Kai's letting me talk to you, 'cause he's got some great news! I get to come back to Earth for a day!"

"_What?_"

"You're coming back?"

"It seems that saving the world a dozen times _does_ have its benefits!" Goku said. "I'm going to come back to participate in the World's Martial Arts Tournament."

"Figures," Bulma muttered. Those Saiyans—coming back from the dead, not to see their family and friends, but to fight some more. Wait until Vegeta heard about this.

"Are you serious? You're coming back?" Gohan said. "Ha ha, that's great! Wait until Mom and Goten hear about this!"

"I can't wait to see you guys, either!" Goku said. "It's been so long, and I've missed so much! King Kai tells me that you decided to become a superhero, just like me, Gohan! That's awesome!"

"Ah, well, that's just something I do in my free time..."

"That's not all, Goku," Bulma said. "Gohan also has a _girlfriend..._"

"Woah, really? Who is she?"

"No, no NO! You've got it all wrong! Videl is _not_ my girlfriend! She's threatened to beat me up several times already!"

"Hey, Chi-Chi did the same thing when we were going out!" Goku said. "Well, tell her to show up at the tournament! I'd love to meet your girlfriend!"

"And guess what?" Bulma asked, grinning. "She's Hercule's daughter!"

"What?" King Kai said. "Hercule? The big phony that took all the credit for defeating Cell? Gohan, you stay away from that girl. That family is nothing but trouble!"

"King Kai, this is kind of a private conversation..." Goku complained. "You shouldn't listen in."

"How can I _not_ listen in?" King Kai said. "Your hand is on my back! You're standing right behind me!"

Goku and King Kai started arguing, and the, erm, call was disconnected when Goku took his hand off King Kai's back.

"Bulma! You _know_ Videl isn't my girlfriend! Why did you tell Dad that?"

Bulma winked. "Sorry, Gohan. I forgot for a second there."

Gohan frowned at Bulma for a second, then grinned. "My dad is coming back! This is awesome! I have to tell everyone about this right now!"

Gohan grabbed one of the capsules at random and put it in his pocket. "Thanks for letting me borrow the jet copter! Bye!"

"Bye!" Bulma called, as Gohan ran out of the room.

* * *

"A special prototype?" Videl asked skeptically, looking at the capsule in Gohan's hand.

"Yeah!" Gohan said. He had gone to Videl's locker before school started to show it to her.

"And just how did you get this 'top secret prototype' jet copter?" Videl asked.

"I know Bulma Briefs!"

Videl looked suspicious. Normally, Gohan was a terrible liar, but he seemed to be telling the truth. Either he had learned how to lie, or he really _did_ know Bulma Briefs.

"Well, Gohan, I—"

_*BRRRING!*_

"Aw man, that's the bell!" Gohan said. "And I haven't even gone to _my_ locker yet! I gotta go!"

"We'll talk more later, okay?" Videl asked.

"Sure," Gohan said, running off towards his locker and putting the capsule in his side bag.

* * *

English class that day was interesting, as they were reading a novel about a man named Richo Rosai. Unfortunately, neither Videl nor Gohan would get to enjoy the entire class.

Videl's special phone went off. "Videl! We have a bank robbery in progress!"

"I'll be there!" Videl promised. She quickly hurried out of the room and headed right down the hallway towards her jet copter.

As soon as she was out of sight, Gohan asked if he could get a drink of water. The teacher agreed, and he left the classroom, heading left down the hallway.

Videl's phone went off just as she reached her jet copter. "Never mind that, Videl! We have it under control!"

"Are you sure?" Videl asked.

"Yes. Someone hit the emergency alarm button by accident, and there are no robbers anywhere."

Videl returned to class in a happy mood. It wasn't often that she got false alarms.

"Where's Gohan?" Videl asked Erasa.

"He went to get a drink of water," Erasa said.

Gohan, of course, didn't hear the second phone call Videl got, so he was currently flying over the city as Saiyaman, trying to find the bank that was being robbed. He didn't get back until fifteen minutes later.

Videl looked at Gohan's empty seat and got an idea. She could take the capsule from his bag now and get a look at his jet copter during lunch, then return the capsule before Gohan noticed it was missing. Perhaps it wasn't the nicest thing to do, but she was _sure_ there was something fishy with Gohan's story, and she was determined to find out what.

So that's just what Videl did. She took the capsule from Gohan's bag, then headed to the school roof during lunch, where she activated it.

Videl looked at the device. It was a yellow machine with three legs with the word "HOPE!!!" written on the side. It only had room for one person.

"Maybe it _is_ a prototype jet copter," Videl said to herself. She had never seen anything like it before, and she hopped inside to get a look at the controls. There were some standard flying controls like the lift-off button and steering wheel, but then there were some things she had never seen before, like an extensive calendar display.

"What's this?" Videl wondered, as she saw a button labeled "HOME". Could this jet copter have certain locations pre-programmed into it so you could fly on autopilot?

There was only one way to find out.

Videl pushed the button.

Suddenly, everything turned black and purple as the jet copter—which, in case you haven't guessed by now, was really Future Trunks' time machine—sucked her into a time hole. Not that Videl knew what was going on. All she knew was that something _really_ weird was happening as everything around her was changing rapidly. Dozens of landscapes flew past her in the space of mere seconds.

Then, it stopped. Or at least, the changing landscapes stopped. The machine was flying, but the landscape remained the same.

Videl looked out the window. Where was she? It looked like she was in the ruins of a city, and if she didn't know any better, she would say that it was Hercule City...

The machine flew through the city, and Videl saw more of the destruction. What had happened here? It looked like someone came in and blew up everything. Buildings stood half-destroyed, there were giant craters in the middle of the streets, and every now and then, Videl saw what looked like dead human bodies, bodies that had been lying dead for months.

Eventually, the machine flew out of the city. Where was it going? Gohan's house?

After about fifteen minutes, the machine stopped and landed in front of Capsule Corporation. Videl guessed it made sense—the return home button takes the machine back to where it came from. But...that wasn't Capsule Corporation, was it? There was a humongous hole on the wall of the dome, and it looked like the whole right half of the building was about to collapse.

Videl hopped out of the copter and looked at the building. What on Earth was going on?

A door slammed nearby, and someone ran out of one of the nearby buildings. Videl barely had time to register the fact that he was a boy about her age with cute lavender hair when the boy grabbed her by the shirt and slammed her against the side of the building.

"Ow! Hey!"

"Who are you and what are you doing with my time machine?" Trunks demanded.


	3. Lost in the Future

"Time machine? This is Gohan's jet copter!"

"Gohan? Son Gohan?"

"Of course Son Gohan! It's not a very common name, is it?"

"He's been dead for years!" Trunks said, slamming Videl into the wall again. "Now who are you?"

"Let go of me!" Videl said. She tried to push the boy away, but he maintained his grip on her.

"_Who are you?!_"

"If you don't let go of me right now, I am going to hurt you," Videl warned.

"Not until you tell me who you are."

"My name is Videl Satan," Videl said. "Now let...GO!"

Videl pushed off against the wall behind her and drove both her legs into the boy's stomach. She expected a move like that would knock him over, but all it did was make the boy take a few steps back. He _did_ let go of her, fortunately.

"I never heard of you," Trunks said, automatically preparing to defend himself. He could tell this mysterious girl was a fighter. "Where are you from?"

"Hercule City," she said.

"I never heard of that either," Trunks said. "I think you're making things up."

"And _I_ think you're a paranoid psycho who goes around attacking girls he's never met before," Videl shot back. "Why should it matter to _you_ who I am?"

"Because that's _my_ machine you flew here in!" Trunks said.

"It is _not_ your machine!" Videl insisted. "It belongs to my friend, and a jerk like you could never be one of my friends."

"Oh, really?" Trunks asked. "If that's the case, then why did you bring the machine _here?_ Shouldn't it be with your _friend?_"

"That's none of your business," Videl said, partly because she was mad at Trunks, but mainly because she wasn't going to admit she stole the capsule from Gohan without his knowledge. "Now leave me alone. I have to deliver this capsule to the person who made it: Bulma Briefs."

Videl figured that mentioning Bulma's name would get this boy to back off. Maybe he hadn't heard of Videl before, but he _had_ to have heard of Bulma, right? Especially if he was so close to Capsule Corp.

"Oh," the boy said. "You know Bulma Briefs, do you?"

"Of course I do," Videl lied. "And I bet a no-good punk like you has never even _seen_ an important person like Miss Bul—"

"She's my mom."

An awkward silence followed this proclamation.

Trunks gave Videl a suspicious glare. "Come on," he said. "I'll take you to her. Then we can see if you're _really_ telling the truth."

* * *

Videl was in major trouble. She had stolen a top secret capsule from Gohan, lied about knowing Bulma Briefs, and now this purple-haired maniac was going to kill her when he found out.

It was such a bad situation that Videl momentarily forgot she had seen her hometown in ruins.

Luckily for Videl, things were better than they seemed. Bulma Briefs was a lot nicer than her son, and she welcomed Videl into her makeshift lab.

"Any friend of Gohan's is a friend of mine," Bulma said. "It's so sad, what happened to him..."

"What happened to him?"

"You know, losing his arm. When it first happened, he was so worried that no girl would ever like him, and yet, here you are." Bulma smiled. "I told him there was no reason to worry."

Videl blinked. "Um...the last time I checked, Gohan still had both arms."

Bulma looked as confused as Videl did. "When did you last see Gohan?"

"Earlier today," Videl said.

"But that's impossible," Bulma said.

"I told you, she's a liar!" Trunks said. "This has to be some sort of trick! She probably never even _met_ Gohan!"

"Gohan sits next to me every day in class!" Videl said. "Of course I know him!"

"Can you _prove_ it?"

"I came here in Gohan's jet copter," Videl said. "That should be proof enough for you."

"You came here in _my_ time machine!" Trunks said. "All it proves is that you're a thief _and_ a liar!"

"What are you, crazy?" Videl shot back. "_Time_ machine? That's Gohan's jet copter!"

"You're probably another android, just like Cell," Trunks said. "I should kill you now, just to be safe!"

"Hey, my father _defeated_ Cell, thank you very much!" Videl said.

"_I_ killed Cell!" Trunks said.

"STOP IT!" Bulma yelled. "Trunks, quit yelling at this poor girl! Since when do you think it's okay to threaten to kill people? I thought I raised you better than that!"

"Sorry, Mom," Trunks muttered.

"Now go to your room!" Bulma said. "_I'll_ get to the bottom of this."

Trunks shot Videl a look that clearly said _I still don't trust you_ as he left the room.

"Now then," Bulma said. "It's obvious that things have gotten confused. Why don't you tell me the whole story of how you got here?"

"Um, okay," Videl said. "Well, Gohan lives about five hours away from school, and I wanted to know—"

* * *

"And the next thing I knew, the sky turned all weird, and I saw all these scenes passing through the windows really quickly," Videl said. "But...that's to be expected, right? Because it's a super-fast prototype jet copter?"

Bulma was amazed. This young girl seemed to be describing a world where Gohan had managed to grow up to adulthood peacefully.

"Have you ever heard of Dr. Gero's androids?" Bulma interrupted.

"What? No. What are they?"

"Never mind. Continue your story."

"Well, anyway, eventually things slowed down, and I saw...well, it looked like a destroyed city, but I don't know where that would be. The copter flew me through the city, out of it, and over here. As soon as I landed, that purple-haired kid attacked me."

"This is amazing..." Bulma said. "I almost can't believe it..."

"I'm really, really sorry," Videl said. "I didn't mean to cause any trouble by stealing Gohan's jet capsule."

Bulma stood up. "I have to make sure. Take me to the, uh, jet copter."

* * *

Back at Orange City High School, Gohan was surprised to find Videl's seat empty when classes reconvened after lunch.

"Did Videl get called off on another emergency?" Gohan wondered.

"I don't think so," Erasa said. "I didn't hear anything about it."

"Maybe she's skipping class," Sharpener suggested.

"Videl would never do that!" Erasa defended her friend.

"Huh," Gohan said. Well, after that false alarm earlier, Gohan didn't feel like changing into the Great Saiyaman to look for criminals. If Videl _was_ fighting crime again, she was on her own this time.

* * *

Bulma was fiddling with the laptop she had hooked up to the time machine. "Oh, man, I don't believe it! You really _are_ from the past!"

"The past?" Videl wondered. "You're not saying that thing really _is_ a time machine, are you? What would Gohan be doing with a time machine?"

"It's a long story," Bulma said. "And I'm still not sure of all the details."

"This is all some big practical joke, right?" Videl asked. "Gohan purposely set me up to teach me a lesson about stealing."

"What did you say your name was, again?"

"Videl Satan," Videl said. "It's a really weird last name, I know, but my dad insisted on changing his name for his fighting career."

"Videl...Satan..." Bulma said, doing a quick search for that name on the Capsule Corp databases. Since the arrival of the androids, Capsule Corp's sales had gone through the roof. It seemed that everyone wanted the ability to put their houses in capsules so they could keep everything and still leave town at a moment's notice. CC had amassed an amazingly large client list before the androids destroyed most of their factories.

"Here we go! We've got a match!"

"A match?" Videl asked. "What are you talking about?"

"We need to figure out your connection to Gohan, and his connection to Trunks," Bulma said. "Then, we can figure out what happened here."

"Connection to Gohan? I told you, we go to the same school! That's it!"

Bulma printed out directions to the address her computer listed. "Come on, Videl. We're going for a car trip. I'll explain everything on the way."

"Everything? What are you talking about? Where are we going?"

"We're going to meet your future self," Bulma said.


	4. Back to the Past

Videl didn't believe Bulma's story. Time travelling? Evil androids? A dead Gohan? It was crazy!

"Well, how _else_ do you explain all this?" Bulma asked, waving her hand at the half-destroyed city.

"I have no idea where we are," Videl said. "For all I know, this city could have been damaged in a war."

"It _was_ destroyed in a war. The war against the androids."

"Two people can't cause this much destruction, especially with no weapons," Videl said. "Nobody has magical superpowers like that. Not even the Great—"

Wait a minute. Saiyaman. He could do stuff like that...couldn't he?

"The great who?"

"Okay, so I know one person who can fly," Videl admitted. "And emit a strange glow. And maybe shoot lasers or something like that out of his hands. But that doesn't mean other people can do that, does it?"

"I'm afraid it does," Bulma said. "My son Trunks can do those things."

"But...how? Flying is supposed to be impossible."

"I don't know how it works," Bulma said. "You'd have to ask Trunks how he does it."

"Don't worry," Videl said. "I fully intend to learn these things myself." She had three plans on how to blackmail the Great Saiyaman into teaching her how to fly, after all.

* * *

Meeting her older self was one of the weirdest things Videl had ever done.

_That's not me!_ Videl kept thinking. _Just some weird alternate version of me!_

Not only was it weird, but pointless. The other Videl had never heard of Son Gohan, probably because she never went to high school. Orange City had been destroyed by the androids over ten years ago, after they came to the area in hopes that the champion fighter Hercule could put up a halfway decent fight.

It was a particularly gruesome death, too gruesome to write about here, and Videl didn't like hearing the story one bit.

So, after meeting Future Videl, our heroines were no closer to figuring out what was going on than they were before.

"We can't try to send you back into the past with the time machine," Bulma said. "You'd probably end up in yet another alternate universe."

"You mean I'm _stuck_ here?"

"Not exactly. As soon as the Gohan from your universe realizes you're gone, he's _bound_ to figure out what happened and come here looking for you."

"How could he do that?" Videl asked. "I stole his time machine!"

_Woah, there's something I thought I'd never say..._ Videl thought to herself.

"I _could_ send Trunks to the past to give Gohan a time machine," Bulma said. "But that would lead to the same problem—he'd probably end up in the wrong alternate timeline. There must be millions of timelines, after all, and I've only got two programmed into the time machine: our timeline and the one Trunks visited a few times."

"This time travel thing is too much for me," Videl said. "I think I'm going to take a nap and hope that when I wake up, this was all just a bad dream."

"Don't worry, Videl. I'll think of something," Bulma promised. Even though she had only met Videl that day, Bulma felt obligated to help her. She had a duty to honor Gohan's memory and his friends, and she also felt kind of guilty that _her _time machine was the source of all the trouble. "Even if all else fails, we still have the dragon balls. The ones on Namek, that is."

"Ex_cuse_ me?"

* * *

Two weeks later, it became apparent that Gohan wasn't going to show up in search of Videl. Maybe he couldn't come. Maybe he didn't know what had happened to her. Or maybe he just didn't care...

_No, Videl, you can't think that_, Videl scolded herself. _You're going to get back home, whether or not Gohan helps._

Videl spent most of her time at Capsule Corp with Bulma and Trunks. Trunks ended up being a lot nicer than she originally thought once he realized she wasn't a threat. With a lot of pleading and a little bit of flirting, she managed to convince him to give her fighting lessons.

Soon, she could hover in place (which is _technically _a kind of flying) and shoot small energy blasts at will.

"Wait until Saiyaman sees what I can do now!" Videl bragged.

"Who the heck is Saiyaman?" Trunks asked.

"He's a superhero in my world," Videl said. "He can fly, lift heavy things, and glow."

_A Saiyan Man, huh? I wonder if it's Gohan or my dad_, Trunks thought. "What's he like?"

"He's the biggest dork I've ever met."

"Dork?"

"Yeah, he's always doing stupid poses, like this..."

Videl started performing one of Saiyaman's dorkier routines. Sadly, she had seen this routine up close on several occasions.

_I am the helmet-having hero...  
The cape-covered criminal catcher...  
The G-g-g-g-g-great!  
S-s-s-s-saiya-m-m-m-m-man!_

Trunks started laughing. _No way that's anyone __I __know! My dad would rather die than be caught singing, and Gohan would __never __do anything that stupid!_

"Wow, I'm glad I'm not living in _your_ universe!" Trunks said, catching his breath after laughing so hard.

"I know, right? He's the worst crime-fighting partner ever. Although..."

"What?"

"Dorky as he is, I'd still give a million zenni to see him or anyone else I know again."

"Don't worry, Videl. You'll be home soon, I promise. The dragon balls don't fail."

* * *

Speaking of the Great Saiyaman, AKA Gohan, he had **not** abandoned our heroine Videl. In fact, he was starting to get worried about her. School had ended, but Videl _still_ hadn't come back from wherever she was.

_And I went through all the trouble of bringing one of Bulma's flying machines to show her, too..._ Gohan thought. _Oh well._

Gohan packed up all of his books and prepared to go home. That's when he noticed something was missing.

_Oh man! The capsule I got from Bulma! Where is it? I had it this morning!_

Slightly panicked, Gohan ran back to his classroom to search for the missing capsule.

_It's not here! It's not here! Oh man, I lost it! I lost one of Bulma's top secret flying devices! She's going to kill me!_

_Okay, calm down, Gohan. Maybe if you're lucky, she won't mention it when you pick up Goten today! Besides, she's extremely reasonable, right?_

_...I'm dead._

* * *

Back in the future, Bulma and Trunks agreed that it was starting to look like the dragon balls on New Namek was their best bet. Only...they didn't have the spaceship to Namek anymore. It was yet another one of the casualties of the androids.

So it was decided that Trunks would go back in time and borrow the spaceship capsule from the earlier Bulma. He set the time machine to the universe where he had met Goku, and on the odd chance he might get lucky, he set for the day that Videl disappeared.

Trunks _thought_ the people in the past would be happy to see him again, but when he arrived at Capsule Corp, he could hear yelling coming from his mother's lab.

**"You **_**LOST **_**the time machine?"**

"I said I was sorry, Bulma!"

**"You were **_**supposed **_**to take one of the jet copters! How could you be such an **_**idiot?**_**"**

"I guess I was distracted with the news about my dad coming back!"

"I wouldn't go in there if I was you," a voice behind Trunks said.

It was Vegeta.

"Father!" Trunks said.

"Figures you'd be around, with all this talk about missing time machines," Vegeta grunted. "Come back to fight Kakarott?"

"Fight...Kakarott? You mean, Goku? Isn't he dead?"

"Then you _haven't_ heard," Vegeta said. "Kakarott is coming back to fight in the World's Martial Arts Tournament."

"Isn't that impossible?" Trunks asked.

"I don't care _how_ he does it; I'm just glad for the opportunity to beat his sorry face in once and for all," Vegeta said. "It's a good thing you're here; I need a decent sparring partner. Let's go."

"Actually, I was hoping to get a capsule from Mom first..." Trunks said.

"What's the matter? Scared to fight your old man?" Vegeta asked. "She won't be finished yelling at the half-breed for at least another twenty minutes. You've got time."

"Well, um, sure, I guess," Trunks said.

* * *

_Thirty minutes later..._

"It's good to see you again, Trunks," Gohan said to his friend.

"Trunks! You came back!" Bulma said, showering her future son with hugs and kisses. "We haven't seen you in years!"

"Mom!" Trunks complained, trying to push her away. "It's only been a couple of weeks since we last saw each other! ...Well, for _me_, at least."

"It's so nice to see a _responsible_ young man around the house," Bulma huffed. "Gohan let his _girlfriend _steal one of our most important capsules."

"She's not my girlfriend!" Gohan said. "Besides, we don't even know if she has it!"

"She disappears at the same time as the time machine, and you think it's _just_ a coincidence? For all we know, she could be stuck in the Stone Age by now!"

"You guys aren't talking about Videl Satan by any chance, are you?" Trunks asked.

"Yeah, you know her?" Gohan asked.

"A couple of weeks ago, a girl named Videl Satan showed up at Capsule Corp. in a time machine."

"So she _did_ steal it!" Bulma said. "The little thief! That's _it_, Gohan; she's not allowed to be your girlfriend anymore!"

"_She's not my girlfriend!_" Gohan said for the twentieth time.

"That's great news!" Trunks said.

"What?" Bulma said. "Great news? Why would you say it's great news that they're not dating? Unless...oh no! Don't tell me _you_ want Videl to be your girlfriend?"

"What? _Trunks!_" Gohan said. "You can't go out with her! She's from _my_ timeline, not yours!"

"No, no!" Trunks said. "You've got it all wrong! It's not great news that she isn't Gohan's girlfriend; it's great news that I've found Videl!"

"_Oh_," Bulma breathed a sigh of relief. "Because no son of _mine_ is going out with a thief."

"She's not as bad as you make her out to be!" Gohan protested. "She's actually a nice person! Well...kind of!"

"We had no idea where Videl came from," Trunks said. "I actually came back here to get the spaceship to Namek so we could use the Namekian dragon balls to wish her back to her own timeline. But now that we know which timeline she's from, I don't have to do that anymore!"

"So, you're going to bring her back? And the time machine?"

"Yes," Trunks said.

"Yes!" Gohan cheered. "See, Bulma? Nothing bad happened because I lost the time machine! You don't have to be upset with me anymore!"

"Nice try, Gohan," Bulma said. "If Trunks hadn't been around to save the day, who knows what would have happened?"

* * *

And so it was that Videl was able to use the time machine to go back home to her own timeline.

"I guess this is goodbye, Trunks," Videl said.

"Ah, you'll see me soon," Trunks said. "Dad mentioned something about a martial arts tournament."

"The World's Martial Arts Tournament!" Videl said. "They're holding it on March 15th this year!"

"Yeah, it sounds like fun. I think I might stop by and enter."

"That'd be great!" Videl said. "I was afraid I wouldn't find any competition with all the new fighting techniques you taught me."

"Ha ha, yeah!" Trunks said. "You're going to knock them dead at the tournament."

"The _first_ person I'll knock dead is _Gohan_, for getting me into this whole time travel mess."

"Ah, go easy on him, okay?" Trunks asked. "He's my friend. Besides, I heard that he has a little crush on you."

"Gohan has a crush on me?" Videl wondered.

She blushed slightly, without knowing it.

_He might not be the only one with a crush..._ Trunks thought to himself.

"Goodbye, Trunks! See you soon!" Videl said.

"See ya!"

"Time to go home," Videl said, pushing the start button on the time machine. It sprang to life and disappeared.


	5. Epilogue

_Epilogue_

Two figures stood on the boundary of Capsule Corp, watching the sun set together.

"It's so beautiful," Videl said. "Don't you just love it?"

"Hm?" Gohan said. He was looking at something beautiful, all right, but it wasn't the setting sun.

"Gohan," Videl reprimanded. "We haven't seen each other in weeks, and you're not even _trying _to pay attention to what I say!"

"Gee, I'm sorry," Gohan said. "But for me, you've only been gone a few hours."

"Oh, yeah," Videl said. "Time travel."

His hand found hers and squeezed.

"I still missed you, though," he said. "If that makes a difference."

"It does," Videl said. She turned her head to smile at him, and caught him staring at her. Maybe it was a weird effect of the dying sunlight, but it almost looked like Gohan's face was shining.

She squeezed his hand and moved in closer to Gohan, leaning her head on his shoulder, hoping he'd take the hint.

He didn't.

She sighed. "You know, Dad's going to kill me for being out this late."

"Mom's going to kill me, too," Gohan said. "We should leave soon...but not yet."

"Not yet," Videl agreed. This was too nice to spoil.

"For what it's worth, I'm really sorry you got into this whole mess," Gohan apologized.

"It's not _entirely_ your fault," Videl said. "I shouldn't have stolen that capsule from you."

"So you forgive me?"

Videl let go of Gohan's hand and removed herself from his shoulder. Immediately, a short burst of sadness went through him; for some reason, he really liked the feeling of Videl leaning on him.

The sadness went away when he realized she wasn't leaving—she was just turning to the side so she was facing him.

"Of course," Videl said.

A brief kiss on the cheek.

"I missed you a lot while I was gone, Gohan."

"Videl, I...you..."

"Yes?" she smiled.

Gohan stared into Videl's face, but his mind was too busy reeling to come up with coherent thoughts. The only thing he could think of was that her eyes were kind of pretty when they weren't squinting in suspicion at him. He leaned his face towards Videl's, and...

"Son Gohan!" Bulma yelled from inside Capsule Corp. "Stop kissing your girlfriend and go home!"

"Bulma! She's not—I mean, you're not—I mean, Bulma thinks you're my girlfriend," Gohan explained to Videl. "But you're not, unless, of course, you want to be...?" he said, sounding hopeful.

Videl laughed. "We'll talk about it in school tomorrow," she said. Then she flew off into the sky, heading for home. "See you later, Gohan."


End file.
